Tesla’s new Model S has the best in-car multimedia system yet. There, we’ve said it. Centred around a preposterously huge 17-inch capacitive touchscreen, the Model S’s bonkers in-car system is far from perfect. On paper, it’s also far from being the Model S’s main attraction, what with its world-beating 310-mile pure-electric range. But TechRadar was lucky enough to be the first to get its hands on the full European-spec version of Tesla’s all-electric luxury saloon. And we’ve discovered that the Model’s S’s infotainment is the most surprising aspect of a car that defies expectations on several levels. After all, electric cars have had a frosty reception in many markets. Here in the UK, around 2,000 electric cars were sold in 2012. Over 2,000,000 new cars found homes last year, putting electric car sales at just 0.1 per cent of the overall UK market. Yet the Model S turns out to be much more usable as real-world transport than most would expect from an electric vehicle as well as a car that has us rethinking in-car interfaces.

Titanic touchscreen

First, let’s deal with the elephant in this article or least the touchscreen that seems to be suffering from elephantitus. We won’t deny it, when we first saw the Tesla’s huge 17-inch touchscreen, it looked ridiculous. It’s almost as if Tesla took a blasé bigger-is-better approach and simply slapped a large PC monitor into the dash. If anything, the incongruity of finding such a large screen in-car makes it look even bigger than 17 inches. It’s massive. Then there’s the question of how practical a capacitive touchscreen is in an automotive context. There’s a school of thought in the industry that says capacitive screens are a bit sensitive, a bit flighty for cars. A nice deliberate resistive screen that needs a good, hard prod is what you need. Then there are issues like, ergonomics, tactility and physical feedback. At the very least, the jury is out on touch. Some major manufacturers like Audi and BMW prefer wheel-based inputs while others, including VW, go with touchscreens. However, even the touchscreen camp has kept the functionality on-screen strictly limited. Conventional physical controls for a wide range of functionality typically remain. But not in the Model S. Tesla has ditched almost every physical button and control. There’s a steering wheel with some short-cut keys, buttons for the windows, a hazard light switch and a button to release the glove box lid. And that’s it. Yes, really. Literally everything else from the climate control to the suspension settings and even the sunroof is controlled via virtual menus on the touchscreen. Again, we have no problem admitting that, on paper, this sounds like a very bad idea.

New approach to navigation

But here’s the thing. It actually works. Probably the best aspect of the system is the navigation functionality. In-car navigation has long worked well for simply getting from point A to point B. We’re talking turn-by-turn navigation. Some systems are more accurate than others. Some have more detailed internet-based traffic data or points-of-interest databases than others. But most are pretty good at getting places. Provided, that is, you know where you actually want to go. What these systems have so far been rubbish at is allowing you to get a feel for where you are and what’s around you, to explore. The bigger picture, so to speak. The Model S is absolutely awesome at that. That’s because is combines the best of both worlds. On the one hand, you have traditional turn-by-turn navigation on the large LCD screen that replaces the driver’s instruments. But you also get a huge, highly detailed rendition of Google Maps painted across the main touchscreen. Just like Google Maps on a smartphone or tablet, there’s multi-touch support for swiping around the map, zooming in and out and all the rest. After driving the Model S, you feel like you’re flying blind in other cars.

Intriguing interface

The rest of the interface defies convention, too. Thanks to the big screen, menus for things like hands-free telephony are big, bold and clear. What’s really impressive here is just how quickly you become comfortable with the interface. Within five minutes of syncing an iPhone, we reckon you’ll find making calls in a Model S more effortless than any other car. The multimedia playback is just as good, playing back tunes from your handset and mass storage devices or streaming music via TuneIn Radio and thousands of internet radio stations. Tesla has done a good job offering plenty of configurability, too. You have the choice of dedicating the entire display to one main function, like mapping. Or you can split it vertically and even swap the functionality top to bottom. So you can have Google maps up top and media playback in the bottom half. It’s up to you.

Motorway browsing

The final major piece of the puzzle is the web browser. It’s where the Model S’s infotainment is sometimes at its most revelatory, but also reveals some major shortcomings and safety concerns. First up, the browser does what it says on the tin. It won’t play embedded video. But it will do most things. In our experience, most functionality that depends on Javascript or HTML5 works. Thanks to that big old screen, you get a proper desktop browsing experience, too. Which is where the good and the bad really begin to kick in. You can, for example, load up your web mail and stick that in the top half of the display. It really is possible to drive along, refreshing the page for new emails. Tesla doesn’t lock out any functionality on the move. It’s something of a revelation to have that kind of functionality so accessible and usable on the move for the very first time. But the question is, should you be able to do this at all? There’s a big debate going on right now regards driver distraction as a function of in-car tech and we fear Tesla may find itself on the wrong side of it. While we prefer to make our own choices as responsible adults, the safety lobby will no doubt take a different view. At the very least, it would be advisable for Tesla to provide a reduced functionality driving mode that can be optionally enabled.

Patchy performance

It’s also worth mentioning that system performance is sometimes patchy. Scrolling response in the web browser can be pretty awful. Google Maps rendering and response to swipes and scrolling can be very sluggish, too. In truth, the Model S needs a faster processor. But that doesn’t stop the system overall being a true revelation. It’s totally transformed our attitude towards in-car touch and virtual controls. They may not be the only solution for the future. But the Model S proves in-car touschreens aren’t just viable. They’re highly desirable. From:NJYTOUCH

Remote Technologies Incorporated (RTI) is showcasing for the first time several new offerings from its extensive product lineup at CEDIA. The company’s newest innovations on display will include the T3x touchscreencontroller, KX1 in-wall keypad with OLED display, KX3 advanced in-wall touchscreen controller, and AD-16x 16×16 audio matrix switcher. The solutions are designed to satisfy the control needs of a variety of settings including corporate, education, and home theater spaces. New at this year’s show will be RTI’s T3x wireless control interface featuring a flush-mount 3.5-inch color LCD touchscreen with support for a Web browser and MPEG video. The unit features Wi-Fi® support and a dual RF platform for either one-way control via 433-MHz RF or bi-directional communication with RTI processors and supported third-party electronics through 2.4-GHz ZigBee. Integrated grip sensors and an accelerometer that acts as a tilt switch allow commands via hand movements. Other new features include an ambient light sensor, wireless update capabilities, a docking station, and a thinner, more ergonomic design. With the new KX1 in-wall keypad, RTI is bringing a 1.2-inch color OLED display with support for two-way control. The KX1 keypad comes equipped with eleven customizable hard buttons for rapid access, a backlit volume level indicator, ambient light sensors, and hardwired Ethernet incorporated into the device. Ideal for classroom and conference room setups, RTI’s KX3 advanced in-wall controller acts as both atouchscreen controller and advanced control processor with a 3.5-inch color LCD display and five customizable hard buttons. With an internal XP series processor and ZigBee antenna, the wired control interface enables seamless connectivity between the KX3′s internal processor and other RTI remotes. Hardwired with Power-over-Ethernet, the KX3 allows electrical power to be transmitted over data cables, resulting in less downtime, easier maintenance, and a simpler installation process. The unit also features six sense ports with sense-event capabilities to detect voltage or closure; four relays for control via contact closure; an integrated camera and microphone; proximity and ambient light sensors; and more. RTI will also introduce the company’s new AD-16x 16×16 audio matrix switcher, bringing control via both IR/RS-232 and IP with two-way feedback to audio distribution applications. The device features audio pre-outs only, control protocol including group zone command, and a new Web interface for zone setup testing and zone grouping configuration. From:NJYTOUCH

Even the red-hot segment of display panels for touch-screen mobile PCs suffered a sequential decline during the period

How bad were conditions in the notebook PC market during the second quarter? So bad that that even the red-hot segment of display panels for touch screen mobile PCs suffered a sequential decline during the period, according to a new report entitled "Touch Panel Shipment Database - Notebook PC - Q3 2013," published by IHS.

Shipments of touch-screen panels for notebook PC amounted to 4.4 million units in the second quarter of 2013, down 4.9 percent from 4.6 million in the previous quarter, as presented in the attached figure. Up until the second quarter, shipments of these panels had been skyrocketing, rising by 52 percent in the first quarter, by nearly 3,000 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012 and by 222 percent in the third quarter of 2012. Despite the sequential decline, the nascent market for notebook touch screen still is expanding explosively on a year-over-over basis, with shipments surging to 8.9 million units in the first half of 2013, up from a mere 53,000 in the first half of 2012.

"The touch-screen notebook market stalled in the second quarter, reflecting generally terrible conditions in the mobile PC segment," said Duke Yi, senior manager for display components and materials research at IHS. "Shipment growth also was impacted as PC makers prepared new models for introduction in the second half of 2013. The good news for the market is that sequential growth is forecast to recover in the second half, traditionally the peak season for PC product sales, following launches of new product lineups."

Second-quarter bluesWorldwide shipments of all types of mobile PCs-including conventional and touch-screen models-shrank a steep 5.1 percent during the April to June period compared to the first three months of the year. This represented the first time the notebook PC market experienced a sequential decline since the second quarter of 2002, during the dot-com bust. The mobile PC industry this time faced tough competition from media tablets, depressing sales.

Area reprieveWhile unit shipments declined in the second quarter, the market for notebook PC touch screens actually expanded based on another growth metric: panel area. Mobile PC touch-screen-panel shipments measured in terms of square inches rose by 3.4 percent in the second quarter compared to the first. This indicates that display sizes for touch-screen notebooks are expanding.

Notebook touch panels sized 11.6 inches or smaller accounted for 36.8 percent of total shipments in the second quarter, down from 52.7 percent during the previous quarter. Meanwhile, combined shipments of 13.3- , 14- , and 15.6-inch laptop touch panels, which have emerged as the mainstream sizes, jumped to 57.1 percent of the total market, up from 40.1 percent in the first quarter.

Meanwhile, the utilization of low-end technologies has been on the rise. For example, the use of sodalime for the cover glass of a notebook touch panel has increased, replacing aluminosilicate, which made up 35.7 percent of the cover-glass market in the second quarter, down from 65.7 percent in the previous quarter.

The growing adoption of low-end technologies in the notebook PC sector indicates ongoing efforts in the market to cut touch-panel costs while expanding touch-screen notebook PC displays to be as large as those used in conventional notebook PCs.

Happy as a clamshellTraditional clamshell PCs in the second quarter accounted for 75 percent of total touch-screen notebooks, up from 58 percent during the same period in 2012. Meanwhile, the market share for high-end detachable-type touch-screen notebook PC fell to 11.5 percent, down from 23.7 percent. Development costs for clamshell notebooks are lower than those of other form factors, prompting greater participation from PC makers. Amid increasing competition, display supplier TPK Holding Co. from Taiwan lost share during the second quarter in the notebook PC touch-screen panel market. The company's share of market dropped to less than 50 percent. Meanwhile, AU Optronics Corp., also from Taiwan, and China's Shenzhen O-Film Tech Co. posted rapid growth during the same period. Notebook PC makers on the whole have been diversifying touch screen panel suppliers to reduce the prices of the panels.

The market for controller integrated circuits (ICs) used for the laptop touch screen panels was also hit by fierce competition. California-based Atmel Corp., which previously led the market, lost ground to Taiwan's ELAN Microelectronics Corp. in the second quarter. Two other entities expanded their market share-Synaptics Inc., also of California; and eGalax-eMPIA Technology Inc., another Taiwanese maker.

Apple’s iPhone 5 is the predecessor of the new gadgets which are the iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C. Owners of such handsets have been worrying for a period of time now that their old mobile phones may become obsolete because of the new iPhone debuts. However, a new test has revealed that iPhone 5 may still be better than Android when it comes to speed performance.

Agawi, a company which develops applications and game streaming, conducted an experiment about the level of responsiveness that iPhone 5 has against old models of Android smartphones. The touch screen feature is the main focus of this test and it turned out that the sixth generation Apple mobile phone is still twice as fast compared to the Android devices. The specific results are captured by cameras operating at the maximum 240fps and produced with Touchscope which measured response time. This lets iPhone 5 users calm down a little bit from their worries.

On the other hand, specific Android devices that were used in the study included Samsung Galaxy S4, HTC One, Nokia Lumia 92, and Motorola Moto X. Agawi representatives who did the research said that they tested each of the devices at least 50 times. Among the Android smartphones, however, it seems that the Samsung Galaxy S4 did the best performance while Motorola Moto X had the slowest touchscreen response time. After the said test, Agawi also released the raw result numbers. The iPhone 5 had a minimum response time of 55 milliseconds while iPhone 4 performed in 85 milliseconds. On the other hand, the Samsung Galaxy S4 had 114 milliseconds of response application time. However, even though the numbers showed impressive quality, the test report did not necessarily mention the reasons behind why a specific smartphone performed better than the other.

Regardless, Agawi released a statement on their website that Apple may have touchscreen features which are more optimized than other devices. It has hardware choices that may have more sensitive calibration specifically designed for capturing and processing touch. Hence, making its touch screen features still better than Android devices. However, there is a catch that people noticed which is the fact that the said company who did the test did not include Google’s Nexus 4. Whether this is relevant or not, the important thing is that a credible company was able to prove that old versions of the iPhone still has the ability in competing against top Android gadgets.

About three years ago, I talked about Table Connect, a 58″ touchscreen display that mirrors the screen of an iPhone. Or not. It turns out that the display we saw in the video wasn’t even a prototype; the “demo video” we saw was made using special effects. But now the same people behind that viral video claim they can make a real device. Now called TableConnect – the lack of a space tells you they’re serious this time – is more or less the same idea, except now the final product will supposedly work with both iOS and Android devices. As with the fake product, you’ll be able to navigate and control your mobile device from the screen itself. The table can even be propped in an upright position to mimic the portrait mode of mobile devices. TableConnect is expected to have an edge-to-edge 1080p LED touchscreen and come in two sizes: 60″ and 32″. It will also have several “Smart Areas” – i.e. home buttons on every corner and orientation buttons on the edges. TableConnect will also supposedly support Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and HDMI connectivity, although this part is confusing because the prototype shown in the video below connects to an iPhone 4 using a 30-pin cable. TableConnect will also require a jailbroken iOS device, although the final product will supposedly come with a “pre-configured” iPhone or iPad. There’s currently no word on exactly which Android devices it will work with. TableConnect is currently asking for money on Indiegogo to help with the development of the final product. Unlike most fundraising projects you cannot get a TableConnect as a reward, but even if they did offer one, most of us won’t be able to afford it anyway. The projected final cost for the 60″ version is a jaw-dropping €25,000 (~$33,000 USD) while the 32″ version will cost €15,000 (~$20,000 USD). There goes my dream of playing epic sessions of Spaceteam.